The following test appears in Death in Florence, by George Alec Effinger.
Three workmen named Smith, Jones, and Brown were engaged by a farmer to construct a barn. They set to work immediately, and after a time the farmer observed that Smith worked three and one-half times as fast as Brown, and Jones worked one and one-sixth times as fast as Smith. The farmer, curious why this should be so, questioned his employees. ``It's easy,'' said Jones, the fastest worker. ``I come from Johnstown, where everyone works as fast as he can, hoping to impress his employer and make better wages.''
``Heck,'' said Brown, the slowest. ``I come from Blairsville. We believe that quality counts more than speed. I may work slowly, but my finished work is better than either of these other men.''
``And I,'' said Smith, ``come from Springfield, where speed and craftsmanship are equally valued.'' The farmer, intrigued by their honesty, noted the facts of their statements and walked away, shaking his head.
After three days of work a halt was called, as the farmer decided that he wanted a watering trough built within the barn. The three men stopped work after a half day's labor on this third day. The farmer gave them precise instructions. ``I want this trough to be built just this way,'' he said. ``It should be ten feet long, two feet wide, and two feet deep. There should be a water inlet at one end, which allows water to run in at a rate of sixty-five and one-quarter gallons per hour. There should be a drain at the opposite end, which removes water at a rate of seventy-six and three-eights gallons per hour.''
``But if that is the case,'' said one of the workmen, who had red hair, ``then surely the water will drain away after a certain amount of time.''
``Yes,'' said the farmer, ``but I want another faucet exactly in the center, which will be adjustable so that I can regulate the level of water at a constant depth of one and three-quarters feet.''
``It would be impossible to guess how fast the water must enter from that faucet, wouldn't it?'' asked one of the workmen, whose wife's name was Sandra.
``I don't think so,'' said one of the others, whose favorite food was macaroni and cheese.
``How long do you think it would take to build the trough?'' asked the farmer. ``That is, assuming that you could let your other jobs rest until you've completed it?''
``I think I can give a good estimate,'' said Brown. ``If Jones and I worked on it alone we could finish it in three hours more than if Smith and I worked on it.''
``And if I worked on it all by myself,'' said one of the others, whose hair was black and who drove a Ford, ``it would take eleven and one-half hours longer than if the other two worked on it together.''
``And if all three of you worked on it together?'' asked the farmer.
``Well, we should be able to finish it up in five hours less than if Jones and Smith worked on it alone,'' said Brown, who played the drums. At that point, being lunchtime, one of the workmen went to his auto, a Chevrolet, and took out his trumpet, which he always played at lunchtime to the delight of the others.
``Perhaps the reason you're so slow, Brown,'' said one of the workmen, whose favorite lunch was chicken salad sandwiches, ``is that you're so old.''
``I'm not that old,'' said Brown, lighting up a cigar. ``If the ages of my children were added together and subtracted from mine, they'd exactly equal the rate of flow of that center faucet the farmer wants to install.''
``Well,'' said Smith, eating his favorite lunch, a salami sandwich, ``how many children do you have?''
``Two,'' said Brown, ``a boy and a girl.''
``And how old are they?'' asked a workman, who played the guitar.
``One is three-fifths the age of the other; the second child is twice the age of my dog. The three combined are three times as old as I am, less twenty-two years.''
``And how old are you?'' asked Jones, who had blond hair.
``I am one year more than four times as old as just the ages of the boy and girl combined,'' said Brown.
The workman who was lighting up a cigarette said, ``Not to change the subject, but I lied when I said what town I came from.''
``So did I,'' said Brown, ``but I know that one of us actually does come from Blairsville, and another from Springfield.''
``Yes,'' said the driver of a Volkswagen, ``I know that the third of us comes from Johnstown.''
``Perhaps we should add an auxiliary drain, in case the first one gets clogged,'' said the workman who played the guitar and liked macaroni and cheese.
``A great idea!'' said Jones, who really came from Springfield.
``Then what size should the auxiliary drain be?'' asked the workman whose age was thirty-seven.
``A large drain would be disadvantageous,'' said the man who lived in Johnstown and smoked a pipe.
``Exactly,'' said Brown, who had two children whose ages combined were fourteen times the rate needed for the auxiliary drain and one and three-sevenths times the combined ages of Jones's children. ``But I don't know how to figure the proper size of the auxiliary drain.''
``We could look it up in a book'' said Jones, whose children had been kidnapped in infancy by gypsies at exactly the same time as Brown's younger child was being born.
``Which book?'' asked the resident of Blairsville, who had no children.
At this point the farmer interrupted the workmen's lunch with the happy news that Jones's children had been traced to a brothel in the Dominican Republic. After a small celebration the men returned to work. It took them three-twenty seconds as much time to complete the trough as it did to finish the rest of the barn. If the man who drove a Volkswagen hated chicken salad and lived in Johnstown, if the man who smoked cigarettes was forty-two years old, a figure representing six times the amount of time worked by the blond man (if the total work time on the barn was divided proportionately by rates) then:
1.) How old was Jones's surviving child?
2.) If the Church's beliefs that God is omnipotent and benevolent are true, how can there be evil in the world? For if God created evil, He is not benevolent, and if He could not prevent it, then He is not omnipotent. Discuss.
IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO EITHER QUESTION, DO NOT GUESS. A PERCENTAGE OF YOUR WRONG ANSWERS WILL BE SUBTRACTED FROM YOUR RIGHT ANSWERS AS A PENALTY FOR GUESSING.